She had felt no pressure to write a second novel; for a long time she assumed she wouldn't. When asked several years ago, in an interview with Random House, why she thought The God of Small Things had been so successful, she said it was a mystery. When she finished writing The God of Small Things, she thought, "Now I've written a lunatic book." After The God of Small Things went ballistic, sales-wise, the friend said to her: "Roy, thank God we are rich." The bookMy Seditious Heart, by Arundhati Roy, is published by Penguin Random House, $75.

Source: Otago Daily Times July 21, 2019 15:33 UTC